ELECTRONICS
Sharp considers more cuts
Japan’s embattled Sharp is considering cutting thousands of jobs in addition to its current plan of slashing 5,000 jobs to repair its disintegrating balance sheet, a report said yesterday. As the struggling electronics maker decided to cut thousands more jobs, its main banks are likely to provide bridge loans of about ¥60 billion (US$755 million) to shore up Sharp’s cash flow, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported. A separate report by the Yomiuri Shimbun said yesterday it is considering a sale of the land in western Japan where its key Sakai plant is located — with a book value of ¥38.1 billion — to institutional investors in a bid to plug a gaping hole in its balance sheet.Sharp also plans to sell its building in Tokyo with the book value of ¥42.2 billion to its business partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the Yomiuri said.
BANKING
US investigates banks
US regulators are investigating claims Deutsche Bank and other global banks funneled billions of dollars for Iran, Sudan and other sanctioned nations, the New York Times reported yesterday. The probe is still in its very early stages, law enforcement officials told the newspaper, adding that Deutsche Bank was not believed to have moved funds on behalf of Iranian clients through its US operations after 2008. The investigation of Deutsche Bank is among a series of cases against global financial firms since 2009 suggesting that financial firms often transferred money for Iranian banks and companies under a loophole in US policy that ended in 2008, the Times said.
MEDIA
US$5m salary for CEO
The New York Times Co’s incoming CEO Mark Thompson will receive annual compensation of about US$5 million, the company said in a securities filing on Friday. Thompson, 55, will be paid a US$1 million annual salary, have an annual target bonus of US$1 million and receive a signing bonus in stock and stock options worth US$3 million, the company said. Next year, Thompson’s pay package is slated to be largely the same, except the signing bonus will be replaced with a long-term incentive stock award also worth US$3 million. Thompson, the outgoing director-general of the BBC, will receive moving expenses of up to US$100,000 through 2013 for relocating from Oxford, England, to New York. He will also receive legal fees up to US$25,000 for contract negotiations. Thompson is set to begin in November.
BREWERies
Heineken raises offer
Heineken NV raised its offer for Fraser and Neave’s stake in the maker of Tiger beer to US$6.35 billion on Friday, seeking to fend off a Thai rival for control of a leading brand in the fast-growing Southeast Asian market. The Dutch brewer confirmed an earlier report on Friday when it made a revised offer for Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) of S$53 per share. It had previously bid S$50 per share, while a Thai billionaire’s group made a partial offer of S$55 per APB share. Heineken, the world’s third-biggest brewer, is seeking control of Asia Pacific Breweries to gain a larger slice of one of the last beer markets that is still growing rapidly.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day